The Republican governor said Thursday that his staff has been working with lawmakers to come to an agreement that commissioners will be treated respectfully at committee hearings.

For several months, LePage had told his commissioners to answer questions from legislative committees largely in writing instead of in person. LePage said that Democrats had been wasting his commissioners' time by keeping them in hearings for several hours strictly to score political points.

Democrats criticized that policy, saying it was slowing down their work and preventing them from getting answers to important questions.

Democratic and GOP lawmakers said the agreement is a good sign as lawmakers head into a new session in January.